Boxes



V. FLAX July 25, 1967 BOXES Filed Dec. 8. 1964 FIG. 2.

INVENTQE VHLER. F2 nx A'r'roiansv United States Patent 7 O 3,332,602 BOXES "aler Flax, Vic Fezensac (Gers), France Filed Dec. 8, 1964, Ser. No. 416,855 Claims priority, application France, Dec. 9, 1963, 956,481/ 63 2 Claims. (Cl. 22937) This invention relates to boxes or cartons, formed from cardboard or other sheet material, and is concerned with a box in the form of a rectangular parallelepiped, having a tubular body formed by seaming together opposite edges of a sheet material blank, the ends of the body being closed by folded over flaps integral with the walls of the body.

In boxes of this character as at present usually made, the end closure flaps overlap with one another and this overlap represents a waste of sheet material, the proportion of waste being quite substantial, amounting in some cases to 20% or even 30%.

In accordance with the present invention the waste of the material is minimized by avoiding overlap between the closure flaps. The invention accordingly comprises a box shaped as a rectangular parallelepiped and formed from sheet material such as cardboard, the box having a tubular body closed at its ends by folding over flaps integral with the walls of the body, wherein the closure flaps are triangular in shape and the edges of those flaps adjoin without overlapping one another.

The invention also includes sheet material box blanks for forming into boxes having the characteristics defined above and a method of producing such blanks from a web of sheet material.

Other features and advantages of the invention will sufficiently appear from the following description of a particular embodiment of the invention, which is illustrated in the accompanying drawing. In the drawing:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a box in accordance with the invention and having the form of a cube;

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of the box shown in FIGURE 1, but with its closure flaps open; and

FIGURE 3 is a plan view of a part of a web of sheet material marked with the lines of cutting and folding necessary to reduce two blanks for forming boxes as shown in FIGURES l and 2.

The box 1 illustrated is of cubical form and is shown in FIGURE 1 resting on its closed bottom 1a. This bottom and also the top 1!) are each closed by four triangular flaps 2a, 2b, 2c and 2d. Each flap has the form of a right angled isosceles triangle, joined foldingly along its hypotenuse edge to the upper or lower edge of one of the walls of the box. The remaining edges of the triangular flaps are each equal in length to one half of the diagonal of the end of the box, so that adjacent flaps lie with their side edges adjoining one another without overlapping.

Three of the four side walls of the box are formed by single square panels. The fourth side wall 3a is formed by two triangular panels joined together by a diagonal seam 4, the overlapping edges of the triangular panels being secured together by means of staples 5, for example.

The end closure flaps may be secured together and held in closed position by any convenient means, for example by means of adhesive tapes applied along the two diagonals of each end of the box. When the flaps have been opened, as shown in FIGURE 2, they can easily be folded downwardly into positions adjacent the outer surfaces of the side walls of the box in the same way as the closure flaps of conventional boxes.

Boxes in accordance with the invention may be made by the conventional technique of cutting from a web of suitable sheet material blanks of the required form and 3,3325% Patented July 25, 1967 ICC at the same time marking on these blanks the intended lines of fold. However, the novel form of the boxes of the present invention allows this method of manufacture to be used with greatly reduced losses of the raw material.

FIGURE 3 shows a web 9 of sheet material marked out to form two blanks 6,each suitable for the production of a box as illustrated in FIGURES 1 and 2. The lines along which the material is cut are drawn in full, while the intended lines of told are indicated by broken lines. It will be seen that each of the blanks 6 has at its two opposite longitudinal edges four saw tooth projections 7, each destined to form one of the end closure flaps of the box, the edges 7a of these flaps having a length equal to half the diagonal of the box end. The projections 7 of adjacent blanks are intermeshed with one another as shown, there being no waste material between them. The lines of cut are disposed parallel to and at right angles to the length of the web, while the lines of fold 8 and 10 are disposed at angles of 45 to the longitudinal edges of the web. These lines of fold define the three square panels required to form sides of the tubular body of the box. The two triangular panels required to form the fourth side 3a of the body are defined by the fold lines and the side edges of the web. However, to facilitate formation of the seam 4, there is provided at one edge at least a narrow strip 11 which will overlap the hypotenuse edge of the other triangular flap.

It will be apparent from an examination of FIGURE 3 that blanks of the form required to make the boxes of FIGURES l and 2 can be cut from a web of sheet material with negligible loss, the only parts discarded being the small areas 12 which lie between adjacent strips 11.

It will be understood that the invention is not limited to the particular embodiment illustrated and described, various modifications being possible. In particular, the invention may be applied to the manufacture of boxes of other than cubical form, though in such cases a somewhat larger loss of raw material is incurred.

I claim:

1. A blank foldable into a cubical box, said blank compnsmg:

an elongated strip of sheet material having mutually parallel straight short sides and generally mutually parallel long sides forming an angle of about 45 with said short sides, each of the long sides defining four equal steps, each of said steps being formed by a step portion parallel to the short sides and a step portion of equal length disposed at a right angle to said short sides; two parallel score lines disposed at an angle of about 45 with said short sides and in alignment with the inwardly facing corners of the four steps to define'eight flaps each in the form of an isosceles triangle, each score line portion subtending one of the steps defining the hypotenuse of the respective triangle, the lengthwise spacing between the two score lines being equal to the length of each of said hypotenuses, and two further parallel score lines extending between said two 45 score lines at a right angle thereto, each of said further score lines joining opposite step corners and defining three inner adjacent square panels and two outer isosceles triangular panels, each of said triangular panels having its hypotenuse defined by a portion of a short side of the blank and occupying half the surface area of any one of said square panels.

2. A blank according to claim 1 wherein one of the two triangular flaps bordering the short side portions of the blank is recessed along the length of the respective side portion to form a lip along the respective side of the 0 respective triangular panel, said lip being adapted to engage the other triangular panel in overlapping relation- 3 4 ship when the panels of the blank are folded along said 2,673,024 3/1954 Kuss 22937 further score lines. 2,795,365 6/ 1957 Curn'e.

References Cited FOREIGN PATENTS UNITED- STATES PATENTS 5 424,042 5/1911 France.

1 45 45 2/1932 wagnen JOSEPH R. LECLAIR, Primary Examiner. 2,432,122 12/1947 Pardee 229-37 R. PESHOCK, Assistam Examiner. 

1. A BLANK FOLDABLE INTO A CUBICAL BOX, SAID BLANK COMPRISING: AN ELONGATED STRIP OF SHEET MATERIAL HAVING MUTUALLY PARALLEL STRAIGHT SHORT SIDES AND GENERALLY MUTUALLY PARALLEL LONG SIDES FORMING AN ANGLE OF ABOUT 45* WITH SAID SHORT SIDES, EACH OF THE LONG SIDES DEFINING FOUR EQUAL STEPS, EACH OF SAID STEPS BEING FORMED BY A STEP PORTION PARALLEL TO THE SHORT SIDES AND A STEP PORTION OF EQUAL LENGTH DISPOSED AT A RIGHT ANGLE TO SAID SHORT SIDES; TWO PARALLEL SCORE LINES DISPOSED AT AN ANGLE OF ABOUT 45* WITH SAID SHORT SIDES AND IN ALIGNMENT WITH THE INWARDLY FACING CORNERS OF THE FOUR STEPS TO DEFINE EIGHT FLAPS EACH IN THE FORM OF AN ISOSCELES TRIANGLE, EACH SCORE LINE PORTION SUBTENDING ONE OF THE STEPS DEFINING THE HYPOTENUSE OF THE RESPECTIVE TRIANGLE, THE LENGTHWISE SPACING BE- 